1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cartridge loading/unloading mechanism for a microfloppy disc drive cartridge, and more particularly to an improvement of a mechanism wherein a carrier detachably containing the cartridge therein moves upward and downward between an unloading position and a loading position.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The floppy disk has been widely used as an external memory means for computers. Especially, in recent years, a small sized floppy disk medium with a 3.5 inch diameter contained in a cartridge have become popular since it is handy to carry around and is not subject to damage.
The microfloppy disk mentioned above is read and written upon by an exclusive floppy disk drive. Accordingly, the disk drive itself should be designed to be small in size and light in weight. Specifically, in recent years, portable and battery operated computers have been popular and the disk drive for them must be designed to be more simple and small in size.
In the microfloppy disk drive cartridge loading mechanism in the prior art device, the carrier detachably containing the cartridge therein moves up and down between the unloading position and the loaded position. The cartridge can be inserted when the carrier moves to the up position, and the carrier with the cartridge is placed in the loaded position when it moves downward to a predetermined position. On the other hand, the cartridge can be ejected by reversing the above described action.
In the prior art devices a guide mechanism firmly fastened to a frame by screws or other fixing means is provided therein to support the carrier to move upward and downward, which increases not only the assembling processes and manufacturing costs, but also makes the mechanism larger.